Abstract
‘The story according to the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Epic Cycle’ introduces the presentation of the story in the earliest classical sources. The story of the war is told through the Epic Cycle, a collection of twelve narratives collected by Proclus. Although the Iliad and the Odyssey are the best known and only intact elements of the story, they cover a limited portion of the war and its aftermath. The wooden horse is not mentioned in the Iliad, and not greatly elaborated elsewhere. Even these early epics were not written down until at least 500 years after the original war and were expanded by later writers.